The Grim Reaper Descends
The Grim Reapers, workers of the Underworld, were direct subordinates of Hades, the King of the Underworld. They existed under axes of time and space and laws entirely different from those of the mortal realm. That was why they could never directly interfere with the world of the living. Just as the living could not arbitrarily enter the afterlife.
Shrrrng.
And the one who had manifested here was Thanatos, the leader of the Grim Reapers. Her descent into the mortal world should have been absolutely impossible under normal circumstances. It was a clear violation of the system's laws that governed the world. Yet she had descended without any interference from the system. The reason was simple: Pride had arranged the situation so that it could happen.
The members of Immortal were mostly the resurrected dead. Their scheme to open a passage to hell had continued from the distant past to the present. The Church's suppression of dark mages. Witch hunts under the pretext of religion. The Heavenly Demon Cult's disturbances. Even the Dark Wave incident in the Raideli Marquisate. Their countless atrocities committed to gather karma had occurred all across the continent. Even within the underworld, before Kain's conquest.
Recently, their misdeeds had grown so covert and frequent that even Pride struggled to detect them. The investigation department of the Ellemental Kingdom had failed to find a single clue regarding Kayen Grant's airship accident.
'Their plan must be nearing success.'
The change had begun roughly ten years ago. After the Dark Wave—more precisely, around the time the Death King discovered the ego left behind by a survivor of that incident and awakened the Ebon of Death. A powerful Ebon user's rampage always left various traces upon the world. The most representative example was Binghu, who had turned a quarter of the continent into an uninhabitable frozen wasteland. The Death King, evaluated as equal or superior to her, had left no scars upon the continent itself. Instead, he had inflicted a massive wound upon the dimension.
From Immortal's perspective, their goal had been more than half-achieved by accident. With success now within reach, they had begun moving more carefully and deliberately. They were preparing for the climax, when the Undying King would fully descend upon this world.
'On top of that, their manpower shortage—once treated as expendable chess pieces—must have been somewhat resolved as well.'
The dead had been resurrected. In other words, Immortal's forces, which had been steadily dwindling over time, had been fully restored. Among them were several 8-star superhumans on par with the Heavenly Demon currently before them. That abundant human resource had only enhanced their secrecy. After all, the truly capable never repeated the same failure twice.
That was why, even as the frequency of their operations increased, no one had noticed their movements. It meant that the majority of their members were now the resurrected dead. That was why Pride had set this stage from the beginning, using Eun Ma-hyun as bait to lure out any member of Immortal. By mobilizing the Ellemental Kingdom to tighten the Church's encirclement.
'To save Eun Ma-hyun, at least one 8-star superhuman would have to come anyway.'
They had already expended the precious asset known as an Absolute Being during the Vivaldi terror incident. Neither Tugwi nor the Empress were the type to move easily at someone else's command, so there was no need to worry about another Absolute Being appearing here. That was enough. This was their winning strategy.
'Grim Reapers cannot interfere with the living in the mortal realm. However, collecting the resurrected dead who have not passed through reincarnation is their foremost existential duty.'
If the opponent was one of the dead, then this side could make such a move. Thanatos, leader of the Grim Reapers. According to the Death King's assessment, she was a monster whose power was equal to that of an Absolute Being in the mortal realm. Originally, she would have been a useless existence who could never interfere with the Undying King's schemes unfolding in the mortal world. But when limited to battles against the dead, she could transform into the strongest joker card this side could wield.
Step.
Thanatos walked up onto the stage Pride had prepared, her blue highlights fluttering. In her hand was a massive scythe as black as pitch. Unlike its original purpose of harvesting crops, this was the Grim Reaper's weapon, meant to reap the souls of the dead from human bodies. It swung upward without warning, cleaving the space ahead in two.
A vacuum formed along the trajectory she had drawn, the displaced air generating a powerful attraction that began pulling in everything around it like a black hole.
"Insane."
Why the hell was that woman here? The Heavenly Demon ground his teeth as he witnessed the absurd divine might that had split his Inner World, 'Heavenly Demon Cult'—connected to the astral realm—in a single strike. There was no need for further explanation about who she was. She was the greatest obstacle to their plan of punching a hole between the Underworld and the mortal realm alongside the King of the Underworld. Among the resurrected dead of the Underworld, there was not a single one who did not know her.
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
His spiritual body shuddered violently. This was not fear of his opponent. It was an instinct engraved deep within his soul. The dead could never defy a Grim Reaper. It was a more fundamental terror, rooted in the system's absolute and unchanging laws. If only he still had a physical body like the other resurrected dead, the trembling might have been less severe.
'To think he was hiding a move like this!'
It was not merely the fact that he had summoned Thanatos that shocked him. It was the outrageous way of thinking that would use even a Grim Reaper for his own purposes. Pride of the Seven Deadly Sins in the underworld. Universally acknowledged as the most arrogant being in existence. With this single move, he had displayed his mad insanity before the Heavenly Demon. Only the Death King stood above him. All others, even Absolute Beings or Grim Reapers, were nothing more than chess pieces to be used if they could be used.
Whether it was a human with such a deranged mindset, or an Absolute-level Grim Reaper who shamelessly played along with it, they were all crazier than he was.
'I have to run.'
The appearance of an Absolute-level existence had flipped the situation 180 degrees. The roles of predator and prey had reversed. Could he escape even if he went all out? Against that insane monster who had accumulated power equal to Tugwi's through eons of activity unimaginable to mortal beings? Whether his existence posed no threat at all, or whether she simply refused to even consider the possibility of letting him escape, Thanatos walked leisurely through the divided space. The Heavenly Demon ground his teeth in anxiety.
"Don't make me laugh!"
A massive roar erupted from within the Heavenly Demon's spiritual body. It was like a lion's roar. Intense sound-attribute magic swept through the surroundings like a storm, stripping away all vitality. The Heavenly Demon's law that corrupted the world. His Inner World expanded vastly upon the sound-attribute magic, his ideology completely enveloping the space where Thanatos and Pride stood.
"……"
A blood-red world descended. A majestic Inner World that encompassed everything. If Pride had not withdrawn his own Inner World after Thanatos's appearance, it would have been instantly shattered by the massive collision. This was the Heavenly Demon's full power as a superhuman standing before an Absolute Being. Yet even as he witnessed it, not a trace of tremor appeared in Pride's eyes. No matter how close one came to being an Absolute Being, an insurmountable wall existed between superhumans and Absolute Beings.
Creak, creak, creak, creak.
A blood-red sky. Beyond it, the gate to the astral realm opened wide. Living dolls rained down like a downpour. Just how many people had been tortured alive? 'It seems he modified the remnants left after extracting karma into dolls.' Most of Immortal's incidents, including the airship case, had ended with everyone going missing without a single corpse. Even during the Dark Wave ten years ago, countless people had vanished, yet the number of actual corpses was extremely small. In other words, the dolls the Heavenly Demon commanded represented the entire history of Immortal's terrorism.
'Even after the Heavenly Demon's death, doll production never stopped.'
So that the Heavenly Demon, who would be resurrected later, could command them again. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to collect so many living dolls in less than ten years. Not only Pride, but Thanatos also seemed to have recognized this fact—her expression visibly hardened. As a Grim Reaper, the sense of justice and duty that defined her current self made the Heavenly Demon's actions an unforgivable sin.
Inner World 'Heavenly Demon Cult' — Secret Technique 'Heavenly Demon Descent Steps'. This was both one and all. The countless dolls descending like a massive wave simultaneously crashed to the ground. A single step. That step became the march of an army, violently shaking the earth. It was the very step of the Heavenly Demon, the lord of ten thousand demons.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
A massive shockwave rode upon the sound-attribute magic the Heavenly Demon emitted. Beyond mere seismic waves, it was nothing less than a spatial wave crossing over from the astral realm. An attack from another dimension. The lines of the x, y, and z axes shattered as magic and spells ricocheted irregularly in all directions. This was both attack and defense—a defense-nullifying strike that poured forth massive impact while leaving the opponent no chance to react.
"……"
But that was only at the level of mortals. Absolute Beings were themselves irrational existences that partially defied even the laws of the world. Gazing indifferently at the approaching massive shockwave, Thanatos slowly drew her Death Scythe backward.
Swish!
Then she swung it horizontally in a wide arc. A white slash that bisected the approaching black wave. It was the strongest strike, erasing everything in its vicinity. For an instant, the world fell silent alongside the massive shockwave.
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!
And the secondary shockwave that erupted from that slash engulfed everything ahead. Change, illusion, domination, and even the attribute of emptiness. The dolls vanished within the extreme mysteries of nothingness.
"Damn it."
Witnessing the sight, the Heavenly Demon's spiritual body despaired. Once again, he keenly realized that fighting an Absolute Being was impossible.
'I thought I could at least stop the Death King…'
Facing the approaching white bleach, the Heavenly Demon's spiritual body clicked his tongue. The attack had not even reached him yet, but its aftermath alone was causing his spiritual body to collapse. His perception stretched endlessly, making the approaching attack feel infinitely slow. It felt like facing an unavoidable death head-on. The sensation was exactly the same as when he had faced the sword of the Masao family head that had once severed his neck.
'The plan has failed.'
He would report to the Cult Leader as follows. And then prepare for what came next. The current him would die, but the next him would surely achieve the plan based on this memory.
Flash!
After all, the truly capable never repeated the same failure twice. Promising a future that had not yet ended, the Heavenly Demon calmly accepted his death before the white radiance Thanatos had swung. Unlike the past, when he had experienced the failure of death due to an unexpected situation, this was his prepared second death.